Share This Story!

Tiger Woods tries to wrap up another win at Bay Hill

ORLANDO — Tiger Woods is 41-2 when he leads after 54 holes. How about 56 holes? That's where we stand Monday entering the completion of the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, suspended Sunday when

Woods finished two holes before the storm on Sunday, making birdie at No. 2 to get to 12 under par and extend his lead to three shots.

1:40 p.m. UPDATE: This one is all but settled. Woods plays it safe on 18, knocking his second out of the rough into the fairway and then finding the center of the green. He will be putting for par from a long ways away, but he leads by three and has three putts to win.

1:30 p.m. UPDATE: Woods made an easy tap-in par on 17 and will step to the No. 18 tee with a three-shot lead on Justin Rose. Rose tapped in for par on 18 to lock up second, and Woods, with a 3-wood off the tee goes right and into the gallery. He has a cushion, but there still will be some drama.

1:20 p.m. UPDATE: Rickie Fowler's charge ends in the water on the par-5 16th. He rinsed two balls, first on his second which hit the bank and rolled in, the second on his fourth shot after the drop, which came up way short and went straight in. A triple bogey finishes Fowler. Woods hits his second out of the bunker onto the green and taps in for birdie to get back to -14. Meanwhile, Justin Rose is lurking. He's alone in second at -11 after a birdie on 16 and par on 17. Woods' lead is three with two to play.

1 p.m. UPDATE: Two bad approach shots on 15 for Woods and Rickie Fowler. Both had testers for par. Both missed. Woods could have slammed the door. The lead is two with three to play, Woods at -13, Fowler at -11.

12:40 p.m. UPDATE: Rickie Fowler is still coming. Fowler popped in a birdie putt on 14, that took a trip around the cup and then dropped in, to get to -12. Woods missed the green with his tee shot, chipped up to 3 feet then made the par saver. Woods stays at -14, but the lead is now down to two with four to play.

12:25 p.m. UPDATE: A little drama. Rickie Fowler made a 37 footer for birdie at No. 12 to move to -11, within two shots. Take that, Tiger. Woods stepped up and Boom! He knocked in a 26-footer for birdie to get to -14, and the lead stays at three shots.

12:05 p.m. UPDATE: Woods' putter, so good for so much of the week, has been a bit balky on Monday. But, despite a poor first putt on 11 green, Woods saves his par to stay at -13. Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose are both at -10.

11:50 UPDATE: Woods and Rickie Fowler both make par at No. 10. Woods stays at -13, Fowler stays at -10. Meanwhile, Justin Rose, who was in the lead after 18 and 36 holes, is on target again, making birdies at 6, 8 and 10 to join Fowler at -10.

11:35 UPDATE: Another errant tee shot by Woods, on No. 9, and the driver goes flying. His lie is fine, however, off the fairway. The second shot comes up just short of the green. He taps in for part to stay at -13. Playing partner Rickie Fowler finally finds a birdie, putting from just off the fringe 20 feet away, and he gets to -10, three shots out of the lead.

11:20 UPDATE: Woods makes bogey at No. 8 after knocking his tee shot up against a tree, being forced to chip out to the fairway, hitting a solid approach but then missing his par saver from about 12 feet. When Woods arrived at his ball and saw for the first time it was up against the tree leaving him only one option, he fired off captured by TV. In any event his lead remains four, as Mark Wilson and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano each made bogeys to drop back to 9 under.

11:00 UPDATE: Another par-5, another birdie for Woods. Woods gets to 14 under with a birdie at No. 6 to extend his lead to four shots on Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain, who is at 10 under through 7. Keegan Bradley made bogey at No. 9 to drop back to -9.

10:30 UPDATE: Woods continues his onslaught on the par-5s, making birdie on No. 4 to get to 13 under. That's three shots better than Keegan Bradley, who birdied the par-5 sixth to get to 10 under, alone in second.

10:15 UPDATE: Woods' lead remains three after a par on the third hold. The chase pack gets larger, however. Six players were at 9 under par, including Mark Wilson, Thorbjorn Olesen and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano. John Huh bogeyed No. 3 and dropped back to -8.

If Woods can wrap this one up, he will finalize some pretty impressive numbers:

77 ... PGA Tour victories, five behind all-time leader Sam Snead.

42-2 ... His record when he has the lead entering the final round.

8 ... Titles at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, equaling Snead for the most titles ever at a single tournament.

3 ... Victories in 2013.

1 ... His world ranking, the first time he will be at the top since Oct. 30, 2010.

Players continue play at 10 a.m. Golf Channel will broadcast the completion of the final round live.

Woods has won twice this year, at Torrey Pines and Doral, and in both of those he built big leads entering the final round, largely by driving it accurately and being on target with his irons. This week it has been the putter. He hit only 22 of 42 fairways through the first 54 holes, but he made 17 of 18 putts within 20 feet.

Here is a look at the leaderboard as of 10 a.m.:

Tiger Woods, -12 (through 2)

Keegan Bradley, -9 (4)

Ken Duke, -9 (4)

John Huh, -9 (2)

Rickie Fowler, -9 (2)

Mark Wilson, -8 (5)

Brian Stuard, -8 (5)

Thorbjorn Olesen, -8 (3)

Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, -8 (3)

Justin Rose, -8 (2)

This is the third time this year that a Tour event did not finish on Sunday. The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, which Woods won, was delayed until Monday because of fog, and high wind forced the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii to a Tuesday finish.

"We've dealt with this before," Woods said. "This is part of playing outside. We've got to deal with conditions like this."

Woods led by two shots after 54 holes. And just for the record, here are the two times he didn't close it out:

1996 Quad City Classic: Woods had a one-shot lead on Ed Fiori heading into the final round and tied for fifth. Woods shot 72.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Tiger Woods reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the world golf rankings with a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods last was No. 1 on Oct. 30, 2010. He has been No. 1 in the official world golf rankings for a record 623 weeks.
Phelan M. Ebenhack, AP

Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries:

Why didn't they tee off earlier on Sunday? "We just got unlucky with the weather," said Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of competition. "That micro burst on the radar was about the size of a pinhead, but it hit us directly. Then, we got that little train situation, where if we had been 30 miles north or 30 miles south, we might have been OK."

Russell said the tour, tournament officials and NBC Sports were involved in the decision to start on time. One reason to roll the dice might have been that final pairing of Woods and Fowler, Red vs. Orange, with the emphasis on Woods going for his PGA Tour record-tying eighth win at Bay Hill that would have returned him to No. 1 in the world for the first time since the last week of October in 2010.

"If we played early, it was going to be a tape-delay situation. People were going to know who won before it came on television, so it defeats our television partners," he said. "They wanted to take a chance. They've been involved in several situations where we played early and it didn't rain. It was just unfortunate."